Trump points to new figures on immigrants with criminal backgrounds. Here’s what they show

WASHINGTON — Republicans point to newly released immigration enforcement data to support their claims that the Biden administration is letting in immigrants who have committed serious crimes Be free in the USA But the figures were misinterpreted without essential context.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement published data in response to a request from Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales for information about people under ICE supervision who have been convicted of crimes or are facing criminal charges. Gonzales’ Texas district covers an 800-mile stretch of the Mexican border.

Gonzales posted the numbers online, and they instantly became a flashpoint in the presidential campaign between former President Donald Trump. promised mass deportationand Vice President Kamala Harris. Immigration and the Biden administration’s record on border security have become an issue The most important issue in the election.

Here’s a look at the data and what it does and doesn’t show:

As of July 21, ICE said 662,556 people in its custody had either been convicted of crimes or were facing criminal charges. Approximately 15,000 people were in custody, but the vast majority (647,572) were not in custody.

The figures for people not detained by ICE include people convicted of very serious crimes: 13,099 for murder, 15,811 for sexual assault, 13,423 for weapons offenses and 2,663 for stolen vehicles. The largest category was traffic-related crimes with 77,074, followed by assault with 62,231 and dangerous drugs with 56,533.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, later clarified that the numbers spanned decades and that those not in its custody could be held by a state or local agency. For example, someone serving time in a state prison for murder may be counted as a felon who is not in ICE custody. They are not held by federal immigration authorities, but are detained; This distinction was not made in ICE’s report to Gonzales.

Millions of people are on ICE’s “non-detainer file,” or people who are not in the agency’s custody but are in the agency’s custody. Many are awaiting the results of their cases in immigration court, which includes wearing some monitoring devices. Some were released after completing their prison sentences because their countries did not take them back.

Republicans cited data as evidence Biden administration is strong allow immigrants A person comes into the country with a criminal record and does not do enough to expel those who commit crimes while here.

“The truth is clear; Illegal immigrants with criminal records come to our country. “The data released by ICE is beyond disturbing, it should be a wake-up call for the Biden-Harris administration and cities across the country hiding behind sanctuary policies.” Gonzales said in a press release:It refers to commitments by local officials to limit their cooperation with federal immigration officials.

Trump, who has repeatedly portrayed immigrants as bringing lawlessness and crime to America, tweeted multiple screenshots of the data with the words: “13,000 people crossed the border with murder convictions.”

He also claimed that the numbers correspond to Biden and Harris’ time in office.

Homeland Security said Sunday that the data was misinterpreted.

“The data goes back decades; “The agency covers individuals who have entered the country within the last 40 years or more, the vast majority of whom custody decisions were made well before this Administration. It also includes individuals who are under the jurisdiction of federal, state, or local law enforcement partners, or who are “It includes many people currently incarcerated.”

The department also highlighted what it is doing to deport those who do not have the right to remain in the United States, saying it removed or brought back more than 700,000 people last year, the highest number since 2010. Homeland Security said it removed those people. 180,000 people have received criminal convictions since President Joe Biden took office.

Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the forerunner of ICE, said the data not only lists people who entered the country during the Biden administration, but also includes people going back decades during previous administrations.

They are accused or convicted of committing crimes in America, as opposed to committing crimes in other countries and then entering the United States, said Meissner, who is now director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute.

“This is not something that is a function of what the Biden administration is doing,” he said. “Of course, that includes the Biden years, but it’s the accumulation of many years and certainly goes back to at least 2010, 2011, 2012.”

A. 2017 report The Office of Inspector General for Homeland Security says there were approximately 368,574 people on ICE’s non-custodial offender list as of August 2016. This number as of June 2021 It went up to 405,786.

ICE has limited resources. While the number of people he supervised increased rapidly, the number of staff did not. As the agency stated In the 2023 year-end reportThey often have to send staff to help at the border, which takes them away from their normal duties.

The number of people ICE checks but is not in its custody rose from 3.3 million just before Biden took office to just over 7 million last spring.

“The simple answer is that, as a system, we do not allocate sufficient resources to the parts of the government that deal with the tracking and ultimately removal of people who may be deported,” Meissner said.

ICE also has logistical and legal limits on who it can detain. Its budget allows the agency to hold 41,500 people at a time. John Sandweg, who served as ICE director from 2013 to 2014 under then-President Barack Obama, said detaining people accused or convicted of the most serious crimes has always been a top priority.

But when someone has a final deportation order — that is, when a court finds that person does not have the right to remain in the country — that person cannot be detained indefinitely while ICE tries to figure out how to send them home. A. 2001 Supreme Court decision It prevented ICE from detaining these people for more than six months unless there was a reasonable chance of waiting for them to be returned.

Sandweg said not every country is willing to take back its citizens.

He said he suspects that a large portion of people convicted of murder but not being held by ICE are people ordered to be deported, but that the agency cannot remove them because their home countries won’t take them back.

“This is a very common scenario. “Even among the countries that take people back, they can be very selective about who they take back,” he said.

The United States may also face problems deporting people to countries with which it has poor relations.

Homeland Security did not respond to questions about how many countries would not take back their citizens. The 2017 watchdog report puts that number at 23 countries, plus another 62 countries that cooperate but experience delays in obtaining things like passports or travel documents.